Summary

The Operations Division is made up of four key areas of activity that collectively provide the stewardship, governance, management, analysis and manipulation of our Marine data assets in a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure, to support our evolution as a Marine Geospatial Information Agency and enable the provision of products and services to meet the needs of our core SOLAS, Defence and new business markets. The division attracts a broad range of specialisms, some staff have deep regional geospatial and international engagement expertise while others are skilled in areas such as GIS based data management, data manipulation, ocean science, hydrographic survey, bathymetric processing, geodesy and remote sensing. This role sits within the Ocean Environment Team – part of the wider Scientific Analysis Group. The team is specifically responsible for managing a diverse range of marine environmental data (e.g. marine biological, oceanographic, geological, acoustic and ocean climatological) to support the UKHO's input into commercial, SOLAS, MOD and Allied requirements. To balance the skillsets within our team, we are currently requiring a marine scientist with a specialism in Marine Biology.

Job description

Tasks fall in to 4 key areas:

Capability: Liaison with organisations (both UK and overseas) to meet the needs of assigned work and keep abreast of developments in marine environmental data and analytical techniques. Make the necessary arrangements to obtain data and provide this information as a dataset in a form readily useable by the customer. Develop a network of contacts throughout the scientific/NGO community to facilitate the best available current scientific understanding and enable collaboration activities to enhance the team’s capability. Take part in outreach activities to raise the profile of the team as a leading supplier of maritime scientific data and expertise.

Data analysis and presentation: Data is analysed to create representative descriptions of the environment. The post holder will undertake analysis of data relevant to the teams tasking, to derive representative visualisations of the expected marine environmental conditions as well as improve analysis methodology in order to provide a better service, more efficiently.

Development: The job holder will develop a good understanding of the customers need for and use of environmental information and feedback from users is actively sought to inform development planning. Methods and software tools used for analysis or presentation of results will be continually reviewed and updated to meet changing demands, to improve products and to make best use of developments in data handling and processing technology.

Report writing and Quality Assurance: The holder will be expected to produce technical reports to record methodology and results or to present a case for changes to working practices, ensuring documentation is maintained for all analysis work.

Responsibilities

Our customers require professional advice and a range of Situational Awareness products providing information about the marine environment to assist in their planning. To support this, the Ocean Environment Team, within the Scientific Analysis Group, acquires data from a variety of sources and analyses those data for subsequent use. The purpose of this post is to provide the expertise necessary to advise on the use of environmental data and development to provide an assessment of the environmental conditions likely to be encountered. This will be achieved through collaborations with external organisations and scientific communities.

We are seeking a highly motivated marine scientist who has credible marine biological experience and enjoys applying scientific concepts and advances to meet real world customer needs. You will already use programming languages to analyse geospatial data and have the ability to adapt to meet the evolving requirements of our customers in addition to having a genuine desire to work collaboratively as part of a small, dynamic team.

Full brief of the Behaviours, strengths, ability, knowledge, skills and experience required

Civil Service Behaviours level 3
Changing and Improving
Developing Self and Others
Communicating and Influencing
Working Together
Delivering at Pace
Specific Technical/Functional Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Postgraduate qualification in marine environmental/marine biological science including experience of working within marine biological sciences (e.g. marine mammal science, biological oceanography, marine bioacoustics).
• Be confident in data analysis as applied to marine environmental data, including demonstrable experience of computer programming skills in either one or more of the following: R, Python, Matlab, and are able to adapt to other programming languages.
• The ability to apply data presentation and visualisation techniques to marine environmental data.

Desirable:

• Minimum 5 years postgraduate experience in marine environmental science domain.
• Good working knowledge of geospatial software packages (e.g. ArcGIS, QGIS).
• Experience of liaison and collaboration activities, preferably in the scientific arena.
• Membership of a relevant professional body e.g. MBA.

 

Benefits

We offer a range of benefits to support your lifestyle, including generous leave allowances, flexible working hours, a lift-share scheme and regular training and development opportunities.

Working for UKHO, you could enjoy the following range of benefits: 26.5 annual leave, increasing after five years service.

Flexible working options include: Flexible working hours scheme, that includes up to two days per month Flexi leave, remote working, part-time working, job sharing, paid special leave, career breaks and unpaid leave.

We offer maternity, adoption and or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks full pay, followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid leave; plus paternity leave of up to two weeks full pay, subject to certain qualifying criteria.

Apply and further information

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Apply before 11:55 pm on Friday 12th February 2021
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